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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Today I begin my drive home to Killeen, Texas from the NGS conference in Charleston, South Carolina. One year ago today, my husband, sons and I began a drive from Killeen to Green Bay, Wisconsin to celebrate my mother and father-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. We hadn't made it past Dallas when we got the call that dad had died. It was completely unexpected and devastating to the whole family. What was supposed to be a joyous celebration turned into what would be a series of indescribably sad days.

I have a wonderful mother, step-father, and sisters and I added to that wonderful family an extraordinary set of in-laws that I love terribly. Losing my father-in-law was like losing a father and his absence is felt every single day. I know he watches over all of us and is able to see his family's accomplishments and his grandchildren's milestones. I can find some small solace in the fact that dad died the day after their 50th anniversary (the party we were traveling up for was to be the following weekend) and that dad passed while doing something he loved...volunteering.

So today, this post is in your memory, dad. You went on ahead of us to prepare the way. Until that day when you welcome each of us home...we love you.

"Patrick W. Cayemberg, 76, Green Bay resident, passed away unexpectedly, Saturday, May 15, 2010 while volunteering at the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. He was born July 23, 1933 in Red River, Wisconsin to the late Patrick and Laura (Laurent) Cayemberg. Patrick was a graduate of Green Bay East High School, class of 1951. He served his country as a member of the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, earning a Commendation as Specialist 3.

On May 14, 1960 he married Dolores (Lorie) Kuehl, with whom they had just celebrated 50 years of marriage. Pat “Big Daddy” worked for Schneider Transport as a truck driver for over 30 years. He enjoyed baking cookies, camping, country music festivals, making chicken booyah, gardening and wintering in Arizona. He loved Monday night dinners with the family, spending time with his grandchildren, volunteer work and going to the Friday night fish fry. Pat was an active member of the Knights of Columbus, SS. Peter and Paul Parish, the Teamsters Local 75 and the American Legion.

In addition to his parents, Patrick and Laura Cayemberg, he was preceded in death by his father and mother-in-law, Romand and Leona Kuehl; brother, Wayne Cayemberg; sisters-in-law, Shirley Cayemberg, and Patsy Cayemberg; brothers-in-law, Vincent Ryan, Richard List, Donald Wood, and Alois Beisbier, great niece, Brittany Cayemberg and great nephew Jake Stanke.

Friends may call at the Proko-Wall Funeral Home, 1630 E. Mason St., on Tuesday (TODAY) from 4 to 7 p. m. Knights of Columbus Rosary Service 6:30 p.m. Parish wake service 7 p.m. Visitation will continue on Wednesday at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, corner of University Ave and Baird St., after 9:30 a.m. until the time of service. Mass of Christian Burial 10:30 a.m. at the church with Msgr. Roy Klister officiating. Entombment will take place at Nicolet Memorial Gardens. Online condolences may be sent to Patrick’s family at www.prokowall.com. In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, a memorial fund is being established. The family would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the volunteers, medical personnel, first responders and the ER staff at St. Vincent Hospital for their care and consideration.

So the conference is now over and it's time to prepare for the drive back to Killeen, TX. A bit bummed that I couldn't post every evening, but with Blogger crashing and then acting a bit wonky yesterday I didn't want to risk it. It doesn't appear that everything is back to 100% (I'm still noticing little things here and there), but I'll try to get this blog out and hope it doesn't fly off into the ether....

Opening Day (11MAY2011) - Already posted about the awesome opening session so I'll touch on the classes I took...and I will be honest about them!

11am - "Chasing the Poor and Landless in Ireland" presented by David E. Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA - There is absolutely nothing I can say to do this class justice. It was one of my favorites. Bottom line, there ARE most likely records on many of your Irish ancestors, you just need to look in the right place! Workhouses, poor houses, outrage (crime) papers, etc...all those things generated records! Don't just look for Vital Records. David E. Rencher is an excellent presenter and if you can hear him speak, take advantage of it!

2:30pm - "Search for Ancestors in Passenger Arrival Records" presented by Julie Miller, CG - A good class for beginners, but that doesn't mean that I didn't walk away with a nice refresher. I think we sometimes need to be reminded of the various ways to search different record groups, i.e. - search for just the first name (in case the surname is spelled differently). Other tips? Don't stop with the index...find the original or as close to the original as possible. This was actually a pretty big theme in most classes. Also, make sure you copy the entire passenger list. There could be other relatives that aren't listed right next to them or even on the same page!

4pm - "Solving Genealogical Problems by Isolating Errors in Records" presented by Henry B. Hoff, CG, FASG - a very good class. Touched on issues that I was familiar with or had guessed were reasons behind differences in records, but he explained the "whys" and that really helps. Some points - remember how the words were used at the time, i.e. - just because they called someone brother doesn't mean they weren't a half-brother, step-brother. Also, calling people by relationships that simply did not apply. We still do this today (I know I'm guilty of it). Both of my grandparents passed away before I was born. There was a sweet widow, Hazel Blum, that lived next door and we called her Nana. When my first son was born we referred to some close Army friends as "Aunt Jaime" and "Uncle Rusty", but there was no relation. My mom went through the same thing and while she knew that her "Aunt" wasn't a relation, it made things very confusing when I first started the family research!

That was Day 1. I'd love to talk more about each class, but we really aren't supposed to share too much. When I start putting some of the things I learned to use, I will be posting about them to be sure. At least I can share that way!

I've seen people tweeting about being frustrated by the lack of tweets. So on the off-chance any of them pop on over, I'll explain...Some fellow Geneabloggers and I attempted to tweet and were actually successful in the Performance Center, but as soon as you got near a classroom (or even in many hallways) it was like we hit a dead zone. The result was that with our fully charged phones on, continually attempting to search for Internet and phone signal, the batteries were dead or almost dead by 5pm. A few of us did try hopping outside to tweet in between classes, but there were simply some classes that if you didn't get to, you were likely to not get a seat!

What made things worse was the Social Media Policy that went out. We were under the impression that social media was being encouraged, but before each class we were told to turn off (not silence) our phones. Not that it mattered too much since we had no signal to tweet, but if we had this could have been a bigger issue. People really need to embrace this whole crazy social media "fad". It's not going away people. Get with the program or get left behind.

OK, enough griping :) It was a wonderful day and there were no classes that made me want to nap!